Aging HIV patients who also battle substance abuse and depression will benefit from a five-year $11,250,000 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to The Consortium to improve OutcoMes in hiv/AIDS, Alcohol, Aging, and multi-Substance use (COMpAAAS), a Yale-led research consortium focused on optimizing healthcare for these patients.

The consortium includes the Veterans Administration Healthcare System, Yale's Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and New York University. It builds on a decade of observational and pilot intervention work conducted within the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) of over 120,000 United States veterans, which includes 40,000 individuals living with HIV. COMpAAAS will expand alcohol intervention studies using a stepped care approach. Its aim is to understand the implications of findings and to determine what additional evidence is needed.